Freeman, R. Austin — The Red Thumb Mark

Toronto Musson First Canadian edition pp. viii, 248. Small 8vo. Bound in original red cloth with the spine lettered in gilt. The pages preliminary to the title page have been removed, front hinge cracked, neat former owner's name to front pastedown, rear hinge cracking but endpapers present and not split; binding shows edge wear and soiling, spine a bit creased. All pages present, and nothing loose but, given the state of the hinges, this is a only fair reading copy. No dust jacket. Richard Austin Freeman (1862-1943) was trained as a pharmacist and doctor. When he was 25, he joined a British expedition to what was then the Gold Coast of Africa, and served as a physician, naturalist, and navigator. After contracting blackwater fever, he returned to England in 1891 and turned to writing to support himself and his family. His first efforts were co-authored under the pseudonym Clifford Ashdown with a colleague, Dr. John James Pitcairn. Freeman is better known as a prolific writer of first-rate mysteries, and creator of the medical investigator Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke, a series character whose work epitomized the use of scientific methods to solve crimes. This title is the first appearance of Dr. Thorndyke. It was first published by Collingwood (London) in 1907, and then, in 1911, by Hodder & Stoughton (London), Musson Book Company (Toronto), and Newton (New York). Thus, the Musson edition is the first Canadian edition of this very scarce title. Our copy was published by Musson, from the English sheets, and with a cancel title leaf. Hubin, p. 153.